Qubit doubles as atomic image sensor, Qutech finds

Work on a particular type of quantum computer may lead to new imaging technology capable of atomic-scale resolution. By measuring nuclear spin interactions in a 27-atom diamond, researchers at Qutech have been able to obtain a complete 3D structure of it. Eventually, the technique might be used to image individual molecules, such as proteins.

Current spin-based imaging techniques such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) yield information about large amounts of atoms over large volumes – in other words, an average. It’s not possible to image individual molecules or other nanoscale structures.

A Qutech team, however, found that so-called nitrogen vacancy (NV) centers – a nitrogen atom replacing two carbon atom in diamond, normally used to make qubits – also make good quantum sensors. “The NV center is sensitive enough to resolve the tiny signals of individual nuclei. But for imaging complex samples such as molecules, just detecting nuclear spins is not enough. You need to precisely determine the position of each spin in the sample, and that’s what we set out to do,” explains Tim Taminiau, lead author of the study published in Nature.